I still recall the line in the 1989 movie Steel Magnolias that Shirley MacLaine so snappily uttered: “The only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessorize.” I actually wrote it down while seeing the movie at The Clyde in Langley. MacLaine played the hilarious character Ouiser in the Herbert Ross directed film, along with five other talented actresses: Sally Field as M’Lynn, Dolly Parton as Truvy, Darryl Hannah as Annelle, Olympia Dukakis as Clairee and Julia Roberts as Shelby. Set in the small, fictitious town of Chinquapin, Louisiana it’s the story of six women who share their joys and sorrows in the comfort of Truvy’s Beauty Parlor.

As with many films, Steel Magnolias was first a comedy-drama play written by Robert Harling, and based on the experience of the death of his sister. It revolves around six distinctly different women, whose lives are interwoven via the small town gossip that surrounds the ongoing cycles of birth, marriage and death. The original stage production opened Off-Broadway in 1987 and eventually landed on Broadway for a short run in 2005. It starred Delta Burke as Truvy; Christine Ebersole as M’Lynn; Rebecca Gayheart as Shelby; Marsha Mason as Ouiser; Lily Rabe as Annelle; and Frances Sternhagen as Clairee. I didn’t see any of the productions in New York or when it played locally — it was staged at Village Theatre in Issaquah and Everett in 2005. But I’d put the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts cast up against any of the other troupes. Director Tim Rarick has taken this sextet of talented women and transformed them into one of the finest ensembles I’ve seen on WICA’s stage.

Be prepared for some sad and sappy moments — being set in the south 25 years ago, you may find yourself rolling your eyes at some of the lines (“All gay men have track lighting and are named Mark, Rick or Steve” – Ouiser). But instead of rolling my eyes, I laughed — there was no shortage of chuckles in the theater Sunday afternoon. And teared up when the diabetic Shelby declares, “I’d rather have 30 minutes of something wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.” Bring tissues for the final scene, it’s a sad one.

With six cast members, I was expecting at least one weak link. Not so. Making her stage debut, singer/songwriter Eleanor Fye acutely captured the flashy-dressing, small-town beauty operator Truvy (“There is no such thing as natural beauty!”). Talented veteran Deana Duncan played M’Lynn perfectly as the overbearing mother of Shelby, a mom with no shortage of opinions (“You either shoot it, stuff it or marry it”). Bristol Bloom, who blossomed as an actress in such WICA productions as Sylvia and Noises Off, is the penultimate pretty-in-pink, southern bride-to-be. I’d never seen Dana Linn on stage before, but she is hilarious as Ouiser, a semi-sour woman with some real zingers (“I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in a very bad mood for the past 40 years”). Elizabeth Grant, who I enjoyed for years at Whidbey Children’s Theatre, is perfectly geeky as newcomer in town Annelle — who knew that you weren’t supposed to make coffee with the hot dog water? And Shelley Hartle, as the recently widowed Clairee, is spot-on with her no-nonsense approach to life (and fashion).

The set of Truvy’s Beauty Parlour is all puffy in seafoam and pink, reminding me of my Aunt Esther’s Carousel Beauty Salon in Marysville, WA back in the ’60s. Like Truvy’s, it too was located in a house, and felt more like a gathering place for gals than the hip, hi-tech salons of today. A place where you could talk about life, love, kids, families and literally let your hair down. Steel Magnolias could easily have been just another one of “those” plays. But in this WICA production, director Tim Rarick has elevated it to a much higher place — one that I so enjoyed revisiting again.

Steel Magnolias by Robert Harling, directed by Tim Rarick at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 24-25, 7:30 PM. For tickets, call 360.221.8268.